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Law, Normative Pluralism, and Post-Disaster Recovery: Evaluating the Post-Disaster Relocation and Housing Project of Typhoon Ketsana Victims in the Philippines

This book looks at how the multiplicity of formal and informal normative systems that actualize the post-disaster recovery goals of the country’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 has resulted in the inadequate housing and relocation of Typhoon Ketsana victims in the Philippines. Using the sociological and normative pluralist perspectives and the case study method, it evaluates the level of conformity of the components of the housing project according to international conventions and legal standards. It highlights the negative unintended consequences caused by the complex normative regimes of various competing stakeholders, rigid real estate regulation, and the unscrupulous involvement of powerful and ‘corrupt’ real estate developers and housing groups as largely contributing to the project’s deviation from the law’s proactive objectives. This book attempts to promote the socio-legal perspectives which have long been overlooked in disaster research. Finally, it invites policymakers to enact a comprehensive disaster law and create a one-stop disaster management agency to improve the long-term rehabilitation of disaster victims in developing countries such as the Philippines.

Sociological Perspectives on Media Piracy in the Philippines and Vietnam

This book addresses the persistence of the optical media piracy trade in the Philippines and Vietnam. It goes beyond arguments of defective law enforcement and copyright legal systems by applying sociological perspectives to examine the socio-economic forces behind the advent of piracy in the region. Using documentary and ethnographic data, in addition to resistance and ecological theories in sociology of law and technology as the overall theoretical framework, the book investigates factors that contribute to this phenomenon and factors that impede the full formalization of the optical media trade in the two countries. These factors include the government’s attitude towards the informal sector and strong resistance to tougher IPR protection, unstable and sometimes conflicting policies on technologies, burdensome business registration process and weak enforcement of business regulations, bureaucratic corruption and loopholes in law enforcement system as well as trade ties with China. In addition to that, the book highlights the social background of the actors behind the illegal business of counterfeit CDs and DVDs, thereby explaining the reasons they continue to persist in this type of trade. It invites policymakers, law enforcers, advocates of anti-piracy groups, and the general public to use a more holistic lens in understanding the persistence of copyright piracy in developing countries, shifting the blame from the moral defect of the traders to the current problematic copyright policy and enforcement structure, and the difficulty of crafting effective anti-piracy measures in a constantly evolving and advancing technological environment.

A Sociotheological Approach to Catholic Social Teaching: The Role of Religion in Moral Responsibility During COVID-19

This book introduces Catholic social teaching (CST) and its teaching on the common good to the reader and applies them in the realm of public health to critically analyze the major global issues of COVID-19 that undermine public interest. It uses the sociotheological approach that​ combines the moral principles of CST and the holistic analysis of modern sociology and also utilizes the secondary literature as the main source of textual data. Specifically, it investigates the corporate moral irresponsibility and some unethical business practices of Big Pharma in the sale and distribution of its anti-COVID vaccines and medicines, the injustice in the inequitable global vaccine distribution, the weakening of the United States Congress’s legislative regulation against the pharmaceutical industry’s overpricing and profiteering, the inadequacy of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) law enforcement system against corruption, and the lack of social monitoring in the current public health surveillance system to safeguard the public good from corporate fraud and white-collar crime. This book highlights the contribution of sociology in providing the empirical foundation of CST’s moral analysis and in crafting appropriate Catholic social action during the pandemic. It is hoped that through this book, secular scholars, social scientists, religious leaders, moral theologians, religious educators, and Catholic lay leaders would be more appreciative of the sociotheological approach to understanding religion and COVID-19. “This book brings into dialogue two bodies of literature: documents of Catholic social teaching, and modern sociology and its core thinkers and texts...The author does especially well to describe how taking ‘the sociotheological turn’...will benefit the credibility and dissemination of Catholic social thought.”- Rev. Fr. Thomas Massaro, S.J., Professor of Moral Theology, Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University, Berkeley, California.

The Innocent One: The gripping new thriller from the Richard & Judy Book Club bestselling author

THE CHILD ACCUSED OF MURDER. WHO DID HE BECOME?'Thought provoking and unsettling' Alex Gray'Had me turning the pages late into the night' C. J. Cooper________InnocentTen years ago, Sebastian Croll was found not guilty of murdering his playmate.Criminal solicitor Daniel Hunter defended the eleven-year-old in a trial that gripped the nation, but the past is unearthed when Daniel gets a call from his old client.Or guilty?Sebastian's university professor has been brutally murdered and everyone who knew her is in the frame. As Daniel steps in to represent Sebastian for the second time, rumour of his client's identity spreads like wildfire.The media swarm. Threats begin to arrive. And the question on everyone's lips:Could the child once accused of murder really be innocent?________What everyone is saying about Lisa Ballantyne's thrillers:'Gripping' Clare Mackintosh'Sophisticated, suspensefu' Lee Child'Tense' Sunday Times'Unsettling and compulsive' Rosamund Lupton'Moving' Guardian'Emotionally intense' Richard & Judy Book Club'Grips like a vice' Daily Mail'Thought-provoking' Gilly Macmillan'Tense' Rachel Abbott'A page-turner' Daily Express'I couldn't get this book out of my head' Jenny Colgan

Knowing Our Limits

Changing our minds isn't easy. Even when we recognize our views are disputed by intelligent and informed people, we rarely doubt our rightness. Why is this so? How can we become more open-minded, putting ourselves in a better position to tolerate conflict, advance collective inquiry, and learn from differing perspectives in a complex world? Nathan Ballantyne defends the indispensable role of epistemology in tackling these issues. For early modern philosophers, the point of reflecting on inquiry was to understand how our beliefs are often distorted by prejudice and self-interest, and to improve the foundations of human knowledge. Ballantyne seeks to recover and modernize this classical tradition by vigorously defending an interdisciplinary approach to epistemology, blending philosophical theorizing with insights from the social and cognitive sciences. Many of us need tools to help us think more circumspectly about our controversial views. Ballantyne develops a method for distinguishing between our reasonable and unreasonable opinions, in light of evidence about bias, information overload, and rival experts. This method guides us to greater intellectual openness--in the spirit of skeptics from Socrates to Montaigne to Bertrand Russell--making us more inclined to admit that sometimes we don't have the right answers. With vibrant prose and fascinating examples from science and history, Ballantyne shows how epistemology can help us know our limits.

KNOWING OUR LIMITS C

Changing our minds isn't easy. Even when we recognize our views are disputed by intelligent and informed people, we rarely doubt our rightness. Why is this so? How can we become more open-minded, putting ourselves in a better position to tolerate conflict, advance collective inquiry, and learn from differing perspectives in a complex world? Nathan Ballantyne defends the indispensable role of epistemology in tackling these issues. For early modern philosophers, the point of reflecting on inquiry was to understand how our beliefs are often distorted by prejudice and self-interest, and to improve the foundations of human knowledge. Ballantyne seeks to recover and modernize this classical tradition by vigorously defending an interdisciplinary approach to epistemology, blending philosophical theorizing with insights from the social and cognitive sciences. Many of us need tools to help us think more circumspectly about our controversial views. Ballantyne develops a method for distinguishing between our reasonable and unreasonable opinions, in light of evidence about bias, information overload, and rival experts. This method guides us to greater intellectual openness--in the spirit of skeptics from Socrates to Montaigne to Bertrand Russell--making us more inclined to admit that sometimes we don't have the right answers. With vibrant prose and fascinating examples from science and history, Ballantyne shows how epistemology can help us know our limits.

Reason, Bias, and Inquiry: The Crossroads of Epistemology and Psychology

Philosophers and psychologists routinely explore questions surrounding reasoning, inquiry, and bias, though typically in disciplinary isolation. What is the source of our intellectual errors? When can we trust information others tell us? This volume brings together researchers from across the two disciplines to present ideas and insights for addressing the challenges of knowing well in a complicated world in four parts: how to best describe the conceptual and empirical terrain of reason and bias; how reasoning and bias influence basic perception of the physical world; how to assess knowledge and expertise in ourselves and others; and how people approach reasoning and knowledge among and about groups. Together, the chapters show what philosophers and psychologists can do together when they shine light on the challenges of reaching the truth and avoiding errors. Reason, Bias, and Inquiry is a multidisciplinary meditation for readers who are awash in information but are uncertain how to manage it to make informed decisions.

Reason, Bias, and Inquiry: The Crossroads of Epistemology and Psychology

Philosophers and psychologists routinely explore questions surrounding reasoning, inquiry, and bias, though typically in disciplinary isolation. What is the source of our intellectual errors? When can we trust information others tell us? This volume brings together researchers from across the two disciplines to present ideas and insights for addressing the challenges of knowing well in a complicated world in four parts: how to best describe the conceptual and empirical terrain of reason and bias; how reasoning and bias influence basic perception of the physical world; how to assess knowledge and expertise in ourselves and others; and how people approach reasoning and knowledge among and about groups. Together, the chapters show what philosophers and psychologists can do together when they shine light on the challenges of reaching the truth and avoiding errors. Reason, Bias, and Inquiry is a multidisciplinary meditation for readers who are awash in information but are uncertain how to manage it to make informed decisions.

The Problem of Truth (Tulane Studies in Philosophy #14)

Empire of the Sun (The\perennial Collection)

‘Extraordinary’ Angela Carter ‘One of the great war novels of the 20th century’ William Boyd ‘A remarkable journey’ Sunday Times The heartrending story of a British boy’s four year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. Like everything else since the war, the sky was in a state of change Based on J. G. Ballard’s own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy’s life in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Trapped in a prison camp and separated from his parents, Jim is witness to the death, starvation and chaos of the Second World War. His story is a mesmerising vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and shortlisted for the Booker, Empire of the Sun is an astounding, hypnotically compelling novel by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered, but judged. ‘Gripping and remarkable … I have never read a novel which gave me a stronger sense of the blind helplessness of war … unforgettable’ Observer ‘A brilliant fusion of history, autobiography and imaginative speculation. An incredible literary achievement and almost intolerably moving’ Anthony Burgess

Regulating Industrial Internet Through IPR, Data Protection and Competition Law

The digitization of industrial processes has suddenly taken a great leap forward, with burgeoning applications in manufacturing, transportation and numerous other areas. Many stakeholders, however, are uncertain about the opportunities and risks associated with it and what it really means for businesses and national economies. Clarity of legal rules is now a pressing necessity. This book, the first to deal with legal questions related to Industrial Internet, follows a multidisciplinary approach that is instructed by law concerning intellectual property, data protection, competition, contracts and licensing, focusing on business, technology and policy-driven issues. Experts in various relevant fields of science and industry measure the legal tensions created by Industrial Internet in our global economy and propose solutions that are both theoretically valuable and concretely practical, identifying workable business models and practices based on both technical and legal knowledge. Perspectives include the following: regulating Industrial Internet via intellectual property rights (IPR); data ownership versus control over data; artificial intelligence and IPR infringement; patent owning in Industrial Internet; abuse of dominance in Industrial Internet platforms; data collaboration, pooling and hoarding; legal implications of granular versioning technologies; and misuse of information for anticompetitive purposes. The book represents a record of a major collaborative project, held between 2016 and 2019 in Finland, involving a number of universities, technology firms and law firms. As Industrial Internet technologies are already being used in several businesses, it is of paramount importance for the global economy that legal, business and policy-related challenges are promptly analyzed and discussed. This crucially important book not only reveals the legal and policy-related issues that we soon will have to deal with but also facilitates the creation of legislation and policies that promote Industrial-Internet-related technologies and new business opportunities. It will be warmly welcomed by practitioners, patent and other IPR attorneys, innovation economists and companies operating in the Industrial Internet ecosystem, as well as by competition authorities and other policymakers.

Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff

The United States has always proved an inviting home for boosters, sharp dealers, and outright swindlers. Worship of entrepreneurial freedom has complicated the task of distinguishing aggressive salesmanship from unacceptable deceit, especially on the frontiers of innovation. At the same time, competitive pressures have often nudged respectable firms to embrace deception. As a result, fraud has been a key feature of American business since its beginnings. In this sweeping narrative, Edward Balleisen traces the history of fraud in America—and the evolving efforts to combat it—from the age of P. T. Barnum through the eras of Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff. Starting with an early nineteenth-century American legal world of "buyer beware," this unprecedented account describes the slow, piecemeal construction of modern regulatory institutions to protect consumers and investors, from the Gilded Age through the New Deal and the Great Society. It concludes with the more recent era of deregulation, which has brought with it a spate of costly frauds, including the savings and loan crisis, corporate accounting scandals, and the recent mortgage-marketing debacle. By tracing how Americans have struggled to foster a vibrant economy without enabling a corrosive level of fraud, this book reminds us that American capitalism rests on an uneasy foundation of social trust.

Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff

The United States has always proved an inviting home for boosters, sharp dealers, and outright swindlers. Worship of entrepreneurial freedom has complicated the task of distinguishing aggressive salesmanship from unacceptable deceit, especially on the frontiers of innovation. At the same time, competitive pressures have often nudged respectable firms to embrace deception. As a result, fraud has been a key feature of American business since its beginnings. In this sweeping narrative, Edward Balleisen traces the history of fraud in America—and the evolving efforts to combat it—from the age of P. T. Barnum through the eras of Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff. Starting with an early nineteenth-century American legal world of "buyer beware," this unprecedented account describes the slow, piecemeal construction of modern regulatory institutions to protect consumers and investors, from the Gilded Age through the New Deal and the Great Society. It concludes with the more recent era of deregulation, which has brought with it a spate of costly frauds, including the savings and loan crisis, corporate accounting scandals, and the recent mortgage-marketing debacle. By tracing how Americans have struggled to foster a vibrant economy without enabling a corrosive level of fraud, this book reminds us that American capitalism rests on an uneasy foundation of social trust.

Government and Markets: Toward a New Theory of Regulation (PDF)

After two generations of emphasis on governmental inefficiency and the need for deregulation, we now see growing interest in the possibility of constructive governance, alongside public calls for new, smarter regulation. Yet there is a real danger that regulatory reforms will be rooted in outdated ideas. As the financial crisis has shown, neither traditional market failure models nor public choice theory, by themselves, sufficiently inform or explain our current regulatory challenges. Regulatory studies, long neglected in an atmosphere focused on deregulatory work, is in critical need of new models and theories that can guide effective policymaking. This interdisciplinary volume points the way toward the modernization of regulatory theory. Its essays by leading scholars move past predominant approaches, integrating the latest research about the interplay between human behavior, societal needs, and regulatory institutions. The book concludes by setting out a potential research agenda for the social sciences.

Socially Responsible Investment: A Multi-Criteria Decision Making Approach (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science #219)

This book integrates socially responsible investment into modern portfolio theory from a multi-criteria perspective. Socially responsible investment is a “new deal” championed by the institutional investment and bank sectors, agents that influence mutual funds and other collective investment schemes and which fear that financial strategies without ethical constraints can harm sustainable growth and prosperity. The book shows how to combine financial criteria such as profitability and risk with non-financial criteria such as the protection of the ecosystem, responsible consumption of energy, and healthcare campaigns. The book’s first part presents critical issues in ethical investment, while the second explains in detail the application of goal programming techniques for SRI funds, illustrating their use in actual cases. Part three demonstrates how compromise programming can be applied in the contexts of portfolio selection and risk management. Finally, in its fourth part the book examines the application of other decision-making support methods like the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework, the Reference Point Method, and soft computing techniques for portfolio selection.

Künstliche Intelligenz: Rechtsgrundlagen und Strategien in der Praxis

Autonomes Fahren, Maschinelles Lernen, Big Data – Im Zuge der Digitalisierung rückt Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) zunehmend in den Fokus unternehmerischer Tätigkeit. Durch KI erzeugte Datensätze und -analysen stehen im Mittelpunkt der Wertschöpfung. Gleichzeitig müssen Entscheider*innen in Unternehmen und Digitalabteilungen die rechtlichen Implikationen der neuen Technologie verstehen: Wie sieht der rechtliche Rahmen für die Beschaffung von Daten mittels KI aus? Welches Haftungsregime gilt für den Einsatz von KI und inwieweit kann die Haftung wirksam beschränkt werden? Wie kann die eigene Wertschöpfungskette vor unberechtigten Zugriffen Dritter geschützt werden? Kann eine konzerninterne Verwertung Steuern auslösen?Dieses Buch gibt Unternehmen einen fundierten und praxisorientierten Einblick in die rechtlichen Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Einsatzes von KI. Ein Autorenteam aus erfahrenen Rechtsanwält*innen erklärt und zeigt anhand von Erfahrungsbeispielen Strategien und Lösungsmöglichkeiten im Umgang mit KI auf. Das Buch richtet sich (auch) an juristische Laien.

Advanced Introduction to Legal Research Methods (Elgar Advanced Introductions series)

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. In this carefully drafted work, Ernst Hirsch Ballin uncovers the foundations of legal research methods, an area of legal scholarship distinctly lacking in standardisation. Offering a critical overview of the theories underlying methodological research, as well as the methods themselves, the book explores how such methods differ along critical, empirical, and fundamental lines, and how, by building on these approaches, legal research may contribute to well-considered developments in the law. Such explorative research, the author argues, is crucial in overcoming crises and restoring trust in the law. Key features include: • an exploration of the common object of legal research: law in the sense of legal rules, decisions, principles and values • special emphasis on the legal-grammatical category of personhood and on constitutional foundations • a consideration of law as a normative language intended to guide behaviour • a consideration of the theoretical underpinnings of legal research methods. This Advanced Introduction will greatly benefit legal scholars who seek to understand the object and methods of their work, as well as law and philosophy students looking to grasp the theoretical and methodological foundations of law and legal development.

European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2019: Judicial Power: Safeguards and Limits in a Democratic Society (European Yearbook of Constitutional Law #1)

The European Yearbook of Constitutional Law (EYCL) is an annual publication initiated by the Department of Public Law and Governance at Tilburg University and devoted to the study of constitutional law. It aims to provide a forum for in-depth analysis and discussion of new developments in the field, both in Europe and beyond.This inaugurate volume examines the safeguards and limits of judicial power in a variety of constitutional systems, both at the national and supranational level. The book approaches the judiciary as part of the constitutional system operating within a legal order that connects the citizens and institutions of the state to each other. Looking at the judiciary from this broader perspective, the traditional doctrine of the separation of powers would appear no longer to adequately represent the diversity and complexity of constitutional systems and their democratic legitimacy. Judicial independence does not mean isolation, but should better be understood as institutionalizing relationships that legitimize the power of the courts. The notions of ‘safeguards’ and ‘limits’ indicate the reciprocally enabling and protecting nature of these relationships. In recognition of this, the contributions to this volume analyse these safeguards and limits as relations existing within a complex constitutional architecture.State institutions, today, are involved in a fundamental transformation of their selfunderstanding as a result of changes in political culture. Several contributions to this volume provide examples of political criticism and pressure on the judiciary, against which the usual guarantees are unable to provide adequate protection. A convincing and effective response to threats to the judiciary’s independence requires a detailed and precise analysis of the judiciary’s constitutional safeguards and limits. This book offers a step in that direction.

European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2020: The City in Constitutional Law (European Yearbook of Constitutional Law #2)

The European Yearbook of Constitutional Law (EYCL) is an annual publication devoted to the study of constitutional law. It aims to provide a forum for in-depth analysis and discussion of new developments in the field, both in Europe and beyond. This second volume examines the constitutional positioning of cities across space and time. Unrelenting urbanisation means that most people are, or soon will be, living in cities and that city administrations become, in many respects, their quintessential governing units. Cities are places where State power is operationalised and concretised; where laws and government policies transform from parchment objectives to practical realities. In a similar vein, cities are also places for the realisation of the constitutional rights and liberties enjoyed by individuals. The book is organised around three sets of relations that await further unpacking in theory as well as practice: that between cities and other institutions in the national constitutional architecture; that between cities and their inhabitants; and that between cities and international organisations. The contributions to this book show the marked diversity in the role and powers available to cities in Europe and beyond, and identify principles and approaches to help stipulate new ways of thinking about the legal role and relevance of cities going forward. Ernst Hirsch Ballin is distinguished university professor at Tilburg University and vice-dean for research of Tilburg Law School. Gerhard van der Schyff is associate professor at Tilburg Law School, Department of Public Law and Governance. Maarten Stremler is lecturer at Maastricht University, Faculty of Law, Department of Public Law. Maartje De Visser is associate professor at SMU School of Law, Singapore.

Political Struggles and the Forging of Autonomous Government Agencies (Public Sector Organizations)

Argues that autonomous agencies are not the result of a systematic design, but are produced by the interactions of political and bureaucratic forces. The case studies illustrate how political struggles between politicians and bureaucrats can create a muddle of agencies that lack coherence and are subject to conflicting levels of political control.

Plato’s Reverent City: The Laws and the Politics of Authority (Recovering Political Philosophy)

This book offers an original interpretation of Plato’s Laws and a new account of its enduring importance. Ballingall argues that the republican regime conceived in the Laws is built on "reverence," an archaic virtue governing emotions of self-assessment—particularly awe and shame. Ballingall demonstrates how learning to feel these emotions in the right way, at the right time, and for the right things is the necessary basis for the rule of law conceived in the dialogue. The Laws remains surprisingly neglected in the scholarly literature, although this is changing. The cynical populisms haunting liberal democracies are focusing new attention on the “characterological” basis of constitutional government and Plato’s Laws remains an indispensable resource on this question, especially when we attend to the theme of reverence at its core.

Gender, Truth and State Power: Capitalising on Punishment (Gender in Law, Culture, and Society)

This book is concerned with critically analysing the importance of the status of knowledge in establishing ‘truth’ about female defendants convicted of murder during the 20th Century. While the abolition of the death penalty in the UK has insured that the impact of this knowledge is no longer one of life and death, modern cases such as that of Sally Clark, whose guilty verdict was eventually overturned, nevertheless demonstrate the devastating impact that those with the power to define the 'truth' still have on the lives of individuals who are unable to construct a dominant truth of their own during their trials. Using the key themes of truth, gender and power, the book also focuses on agency and rationality in relation to female criminality, masculinity and miscarriages of justice. Challenging official discourse which historically has incorporated entrenched constructions of women who kill as mad, bad or tragic victims, this book argues for the creation of new subject positions and alternative discourses within which female violence can be understood.

Gender, Truth and State Power: Capitalising on Punishment (Gender in Law, Culture, and Society)

This book is concerned with critically analysing the importance of the status of knowledge in establishing ‘truth’ about female defendants convicted of murder during the 20th Century. While the abolition of the death penalty in the UK has insured that the impact of this knowledge is no longer one of life and death, modern cases such as that of Sally Clark, whose guilty verdict was eventually overturned, nevertheless demonstrate the devastating impact that those with the power to define the 'truth' still have on the lives of individuals who are unable to construct a dominant truth of their own during their trials. Using the key themes of truth, gender and power, the book also focuses on agency and rationality in relation to female criminality, masculinity and miscarriages of justice. Challenging official discourse which historically has incorporated entrenched constructions of women who kill as mad, bad or tragic victims, this book argues for the creation of new subject positions and alternative discourses within which female violence can be understood.

The House of Lords 1911-2011: A Century of Non-Reform (Hart Studies in Constitutional Law)

House of Lords reform is often characterised as unfinished business: a riddle that has been left unanswered since 1911. But rarely can an unanswered riddle have had so many answers offered, even though few have been accepted; indeed, when Viscount Cave was invited in the mid-1920s to lead a Cabinet committee on Lords reform, he complained of finding 'the ground covered by an embarrassing mass of proposals'.That embarrassing mass increased throughout the twentieth century. Much ink has been spilled on what should be done with the upper House of Parliament; much less ink has been expended on why reform has been so difficult to achieve.This book analyses in detail the principal attempts to reform the House of Lords. Starting with the Parliament Act of 1911 the book examines the century of non-reform that followed, drawing upon substantial archival sources, many of which have been under-utilised until now. These sources challenge many of the existing understandings of the history of House of Lords reform and the reasons for success or failure of reform attempts. The book begins by arguing against the popular idea that the 1911 Act was intended by its supporters to be a temporary measure.'No one – peers included – should be allowed to pronounce about the future of the House of Lords without reading Chris Ballinger's authoritative, shrewd and readable account about reform attempts over the past century. He punctures several widely-held myths and claims in the current debate.'Rt Hon Peter Riddell CBEDirector, Institute for Government and former Hansard Society chair'This is at once an impeccably researched academic study, and a thoroughly readable account loaded with lessons for today's would-be Lords reformers.'Lord (David) Lipsey

The House of Lords 1911-2011: A Century of Non-Reform (Hart Studies in Constitutional Law)

House of Lords reform is often characterised as unfinished business: a riddle that has been left unanswered since 1911. But rarely can an unanswered riddle have had so many answers offered, even though few have been accepted; indeed, when Viscount Cave was invited in the mid-1920s to lead a Cabinet committee on Lords reform, he complained of finding 'the ground covered by an embarrassing mass of proposals'.That embarrassing mass increased throughout the twentieth century. Much ink has been spilled on what should be done with the upper House of Parliament; much less ink has been expended on why reform has been so difficult to achieve.This book analyses in detail the principal attempts to reform the House of Lords. Starting with the Parliament Act of 1911 the book examines the century of non-reform that followed, drawing upon substantial archival sources, many of which have been under-utilised until now. These sources challenge many of the existing understandings of the history of House of Lords reform and the reasons for success or failure of reform attempts. The book begins by arguing against the popular idea that the 1911 Act was intended by its supporters to be a temporary measure.'No one – peers included – should be allowed to pronounce about the future of the House of Lords without reading Chris Ballinger's authoritative, shrewd and readable account about reform attempts over the past century. He punctures several widely-held myths and claims in the current debate.'Rt Hon Peter Riddell CBEDirector, Institute for Government and former Hansard Society chair'This is at once an impeccably researched academic study, and a thoroughly readable account loaded with lessons for today's would-be Lords reformers.'Lord (David) Lipsey